Page 1 of Rogue Witch

Chapter One

LEILAH

Sunlight blinds me. I throw up a hand against the glare. Where the hell am I? Seconds ago, I had crashed to the floor while chasing Shadows in a dimly lit kitchen. I slap a hand over the shoulder I fell on, but there’s no pain. I turn in a circle, heart pounding. Gone is the mob boss's kitchen in the virtual War Games. Gone is the dragon I conjured to battle the Shadow chasing Chelsea. Gone are Chelsea and Raith. Now, sunlight, silence and cold surround me.

“Leilah.”

I whirl at the sound of my name, but I'm alone. My imagination? Or an echo from the world from which I was just ripped? I'm standing on an icy road in a rural countryside that looks like…God, this could be upper Westchester County, New York where Grams used to live before Shadows consumed her mind and spirit.

“Damn you!” I shout to the wind. “Send me back.”

I close my eyes then snap them open again, but nothing changes. Is this a part of the War Games we weren’t told about? Would The Academy do that to us? Would the Grand Witch do that to us? Raith sure as hell would. That fucking vampire threatened to expel me from Illumina Academy. He would love to see me fail and get kicked out. If he’s playing some trick to get me expelled—

My thoughts screech to a halt. If he’s playing some trick to get me expelled, why should I fight him? I would love nothing better than to be allowed to leave The Academy. Then I could return home—my new home, Grams’ house.

So, how do I oblige?

I look down at my clothes. I’m still wearing the skin-tight, dark brown pants, leather bustier, and calf length, quilted, dark brown waistcoat I wore in the War Games. Even the burn mark from Chelsea’s lightning bolt still mars my right sleeve. I clap a hand over the Celtic short sword strapped to my belt on the left and the other hand over two Japanese curved blades on the right. Still there.

I scan my surroundings. Across the street, a large stone house stands twenty feet off the road. To my left, beyond the open field, sits a two-story stone home that’s at least forty-five hundred square feet. The road winds around a curve and disappears into trees. All as perfectly normal as any rural street in upper Westchester County. Wherever here is, appears just as real as the virtual Shadow world where the war games were taking place. Only that world took place at night, near a large city on the grounds of a crime lord’s estate.

Are any of the other students here? Is Chelsea here? When last I saw the teenager, she was fleeing from the house of the crime lord we were sent to capture, a Shadow hard on her tail. I’d conjured a dragon in an effort to get the Shadow to chase me instead. But the Shadow was hungry for fear and Chelsea had plenty of that. Then Raith arrived an instant before all went white. Now, I'm here in—whatever this is.

Instructors aren’t supposed to interfere with the games. But then, Commander Raith Vanderkoff, Mr. Vampire Asshole, does exactly as he pleases. Wait. Are the teachers still observing us? God, that’s perverse and—

Fear whips through me when I remember.

Stony.

I stuff a hand into the inside pocket of my jacket where Stony, in mouse form, had been hiding a moment ago. My fingers encounter the lining. I search left, then right. Nothing.

No. No. No.

I choke back a sob. I just got my familiar back two days ago. To have her ripped from me again so soon is…cruel. I slap my thigh and force back the tears that threaten to spill from my eyes. Stony knows to meet me at Grams’ if we get separated.

“Figure out what’s going on and we’ll be reunited,” I tell myself.

Think. I release a slow breath. If the War Games’ virtual world has gone wonky, maybe we were transported to somewhere near The Academy in Westchester? But it was just night, now it’s day. I look up at the sky at the sun, which is—

No way. No-fucking-way.

I stare at a light blue sun.

I shake my head almost violently. This isn’t my reality. Where am I? What—

Did the Shadow I was chasing infect me? The Shadows feed on our fears. Some people simply can’t find their way out of the darkness The Shadows create, and psychosis consumes them. If we’re lucky—if being driven insane with fear can be called luck—the infected only take themselves down. If we’re unlucky, we start killing each other like we did in the recent Shadow War where millions died.

If the Shadow did infect me, it would have occurred seconds ago in the War Games. Was the magic I’d used to stop the Shadow enough to open the door to infection? I’d always believed the Illumina was overreacting when they preached that even the slightest use of magic in the presence of a Shadow can allow them entrance into your psyche.

I’ve practiced magic my whole life and never seen a Shadow until the War Games. The game hadn’t been real, though. The Shadows were part of the virtual world—virtualverse, the students called it—created by the Grand Witch of the North—key word being virtual.

Fear twists through me. “Stony!” I cry. “Where are you?”

Where am I?

My thoughts abruptly jumble with a horrifying thought. On God, is it possible…is this a…Reaping? I resist the urge to look around for the floating obsidian ribbons that are Shadows. Are they close? Will they attack if I use magic in an effort to figure out where I am? Is Illumina telling the truth? Does our magic feed The Shadows? Damn the Illumina. They make us fear our natural state.

The possibility this is a Reaping is too fantastical. What are the chances that Illumina Academy students could be swept into a Reaping—a magical reality that tests our skills against our mortal enemies, The Shadows—while in a magical virtual reality designed to test our skills against The Shadows? The last Reaping took place five years ago. They never reappear for at least twenty-five years. This has got to be the virtualverse gone wrong.